on O'Reilly, I thought. He kept trying to trip her up on stuff, and she simply couldn't be tripped. Sometimes it was like watching a superb tennis volley.

O'Reilly said on Greta van Sustern's show tonight that he'd gotten "thousands" of emails from viewers saying how shocked they were at how terrific she was. I think it was smart for her to go on Fox. There are a lot of GOP women especially who could be brought over with just a small nudge if she's the nominee.

(Obama, of course, says he'll do O'Reilly after the primaries. He should be embarrassed.)

They must have noticed just how much superior she is to any normal politician. They must have KNOWN and SCARED SH--LESS. I understand why they spent 16 years making themselves look ridiculous, made themselves like silly schoolkids, spent 30 million dollars to stop her in NY. They saw THIS COMING.

They say they want Hillary in GE?? BULLS--T!! In all my years of watching debates, politics anywhere, I have never seen someone so prepared, so poised, so prepared, and so unflappable.

Remember when Tim Russet went after her in his October debate, it took him, Williams, and help from at least 5 other guys on the stage to make her look weak on ONE question. And then the media played it for all it was worth.

It was like they all ganged up 10-1, and finally got to score one against Pele, and were still surprised.

possibility of her losing for the reasons she will lose that much more depressing? Does it not make the possibility that this nation will miss having her as president that more disturbing? I know it does for me.

Even if you hypothetically accept that the majority of Clinton voters will vote for Obama in November, quite a number will end up doing it, not just holding their noses but gritting their teeth, and that means there will be lower Dem voter turn-out. More will fill the ranks of the GAAP (Greater American Apathy Party).

Secondly, life-long loyal Dem volunteers for the army of ground-troops, who are out there every election year, will drop off in numbers too, with "So Sorry, can't make the time this year, as I ......". (<---- insert preferred excuse).

In swing-states, and battlegrounders, it only takes a few points of voters to stay home and the state is lost, thats where you need the fighters to be motivated. One of the differences I see between Dem and Repub voting bases, is that Dems aren't as fully mobilisable, they need to be given something/someone to vote -for-, not just vote -against-.

I'm now hearing it everywhere that the GOPers initially thought she'd be easy pickin's because they could bring up all her old baggage, but they've been knocked back on their heels by her unflappable performances and her strong appeal to blue-colllar, especially, "Reagan Democrat" voters.

These people are ruthless street fighters, but Hillary unleashed will not be cowed, and they actually respect that quite a lot. Obama, otoh, eh, not so much.

What keeps striking me is how she's the equal of Bill in her erudition and depth of knowledge, but doesn't have his temperament issues. (And no wonder, to survive being married to him, she'd have to have an extraordinarily even keel!)

I adore Bill Clinton, even when I disagree with him, and thought one of the worst things about the impeachment crap was that he stopped doing those press conferences, which always left me sitting there with my mouth hanging open. She doesn't have his fast funny wit and his irresistible charm, but she's no piker in the charm department and doesn't lose her temper, at least in public.

Somebody maybe in this thread said she's the most impressive presidential candidate we've maybe ever had, and I have to agree. It's baffling to me why that isn't obvious to everybody else.

When I saw her in person at YearlyKos 07. Seriously, after I attended her breakout session and the forum, I didn't think she had a peer in that ballroom and I was an Edwards person up til that very hour.

Ever since then, I've watched transfixed and it has dawned on me that when Bill saud "elect me, get one free" he wasn't kidding. Maybe the reason the media and others have found Hillary so disconcerting is that up until now, there haven't been too many people like her. She's smart enough (and then some) to be president and she knows it. They're still trying to wrap their heads around it.

3. We are tirelessly working to get the endorsement of Kentucky Derby favorite Colonel John.

The favorite in the Derby is a colt called Big Brown. And Big Brown is breaking from the outside post position. Unlike Obama, Big Brown has a chance to win. He just lost a bunch of horse player votes..LOL It's a sin to not know who the favorite is two days before the Derby. Heh.

I'll have to see if I can watch this year. I haven't been able to watch a race since Barbaro went down. Still upsets me even though I love watching the sheer beauty of horses running (yes, I'm oversensitive, ask my mom!)

but for my entire life, I will never forget the sight of Secretariat sweeping down the track in the Preakness, effortlessly increasing his impossible lead with every stride until he was like some kind of shooting star. I wept uncontrollably as I watched, and I still weep just remembering it.

And there's something exactly right about the fact that he wasn't able to pass that on to the horses he sired. It was just his. No genes to pass on, just his.

said pretty much the same thing. And I am more inclined to believe him than a psychic. I am also inclined to believe that the psychic knew that Ron had said that. Secretariat had a whole other gear that other horses just don't have. His heart was also huge, literally.

by a couple of lengths. Set a new record, at least it would have if the timers had been working. The race that took everyone's breath away was the Belmont. He won that by 31 lengths. He was half-way down the stretch before the other horses made the turn. Here it is, in all its glory.

Obama's one full hour on Meet the Press is a set up. MSNBC doesn't have a dog in this race, now does it? Rest assured, Russert and Obama are gonna hit it off just peachy. Would no be surprise if Obama is prepped ahead of time what Timmeh's questions are going to be. They aren't offering Hillary equal time, are they? (irony alert:- Don't Markos and Arianna both despise Russert? Betcha after Sunday all is forgiven.)

Unlike ABC, which at least made a show of making the same offer to the all the candidates. But who knows, maybe that's a setup too. But at least the questions will be coming real time from real people. And that's where Hillary will shine. Talking to the people directly. The people - her real constituency. The tougher the questions the better she'll be.

BTW - Went over to Huffpost to check on the spelling of Arianna...haven't been there in ages. Giant banner: OBAMA ROLLS ON. And, I kid you not - nary a mention of Hillary anywhere. Just a rag.

BTW2 - If by some miracle Hillary wins in NC, Obama will be forced to leave the race. No matter who appears to be in front...for the first time the shoe is now on the other foot. Just sayin'.

I bet a LOT of people have not slept. What a schedule they are keeping. But Hillary has not been losing it because of lack of sleep. Good signs of a good leader. BTW, GW hit a 71% disapproval rating today. That is BAD. In fact, I saw this article and remembered he is still POTUS. I guess I was thinking the country is running itself or something. Need to head to sweet dreams myself. Ha.

Oh, around 1993, he filmed part of a movie in my house. My neighbors were livid about the annoyance even though they all got paid. He was really sweet to the little kids and my daughter's classmates. My I guess 15 minutes of fame.

awhile ago (Top Ten Reasons to Vote for Me: #6 -- My Vice-President will never shoot anyone in the face). She was on Letterman again a few weeks ago, and sat down in the chair saying, "I had a hard time making it in due to the sniper fire." It cracked everyone up, including Dave.

to get into the humour wars, but there is a serious lack of humour among his supporters.

Jeez, the guy has the upper hand and will get the nomination but their skins are so thin you'd think ABC were actually being unfair to him in the last debate. They can laugh off nearly everything that Clinton does to Obama from now on--but they don't.

ethnic guy, his comment about Obama from the beginning, the guy has no sense of humor--he kept saying how he cannot like anyone without a sense of humor. My brother loves Hillary's laugh, it reminds him of our mom.

When you consider how much the media is in love with this guy. They aren't going to print anything negative about his college days, or anything else. We don't know anything about this guy, and we won't find out, if the msm can prevent it.

Can anyone say that they think Obama would be a fun guy to spend some time with? Go out to dinner with or out for a beer? Throw in his wife, and the idea sounds down right scary. Would it be fun to spend and evening with Hillary and Bill? Oh hell yeah. I have no doubt that I'd be laughing my butt off and having a blast.

read from a scripted "top ten" list than to answer tough questions... so where is the comparison?

Yes, some of us prefer dessert before our nutritional dinner. Hmm... is that why some do not choose Hillary? They do not want to eat broccoli?

Hillary is the only person in contention for POTUS worthy of the White House in my opinion. She goes out there and shows us how much she is paying attention to what is happening in the world today. She "gets it" and she cares about our health... dinner before dessert!

but I just read a post by Jerome on MyDD about Obama's mailer to the people of Oregon. This is funny...

Yes, except that the Obama campaign mailed it in for this document, stating in the section under About Caring for our Veterans: "As president, Obama will ensure we honor the sacred trust to care for Pennsylvania's 1.1 million Veterans."

And then in the section on "Clean up our Water" we learn new geography!

H]e will continue his leadership in protecting national treasures like the Great Lakes from threats such as industrial pollution, water diversion, and invasive species.

We got an Obama mailer at our Oregon household, and I just dove into the recycling container to fish it out and look for that. Ours must be a different one. No howlers like that.

It struck me as peculiar (again), though, because it is addressed to my 25-year-old son, and the campaign seems to be convinced that he is either an educator or the concerned parent of a young school child (who needs to be given the turn-off-the-teevee-and-video-games speech).

My son doesn't fit either of those profiles--he'd probably rather read about plans to clean up the Great Lakes, thousands of miles away.

but since you asked -- MTV scripted-reality show about some OC teen brats -- and that is a kind description. LC & Heidi are the Alexis and Krystal* characters.
*(from Dynasty for those who are too young to get the reference).

A few weeks ago I got so hooked on Bones that I went looking for blogs discussing the serial killer storyline they've got going on. Started trying to translate a French one cause it had what I was looking for.

I didn't know that much about it afterall. So the Hills refers to Hollywood Hills. But wait!! I do remember seeing one of the first episodes where the girl was getting a gig at a magazine or something. It was all so cool and hip omigosh.

is putting it mildly. Ripped him a new one is more the impression I had.

Obama just can't talk substance. Hillary tonight on Nightline and on Bill O'Reilly goes to a level of detail that is astounding. No wonder Obama doesn't want another debate. He keeps on saying there have 21 debates but really only 4 head to head since late January. That's one every 3 plus weeks. Hardly taxing.

but this is really getting too much. I mean Hillary is definitely the superior candidate by far and yet the MSM, the Elite democrates and the O blogger set keep pushing a completely different story.

I keep thinking that if Hillary was a male with similar qualifications and competencies she would have sailed through the nomination and both the O blogger set and the MSM would be eating out of her sorry his hands.

is debate and conversation. Her ability to rattle off facts is amazing. No notes, no teleprompter. And she has a good sense of humor. Just watch the videos of her with Olberman and O'Reilly and any of the available interviews with editorial boards.

I am constantly amazed at what she can rattle off on any issue that's tossed at her. When I'm in work environments, my brain is pretty darn good at storage and I rarely need notes (people who took notes would come to me for answers), but geeze, she's just nuts that way!

On FOX last Sunday, when Obama was giving his excuse for hiding from another debate with Hillary, he said:

"I'm not ducking. We've had 21 (debates), and so what we've said is, with two weeks, two big states, we want to make sure we're talking to as many folks possible on the ground taking questions from voters," he said, so no debates.

So, he has no time to debate Hillary because he wants to talk to as many folks on the ground as possible. Yet, he'll interrupt that `ground voter talk' to do David Letterman's Top 10 List, a Today show interview with Meredith Viera, and (what I'm sure will be) a Meet The Press lovefest this weekend with Tim Russert.

I guess some regular-folk interruptions are OK as long as he doesn't have to stand next to Hillary.

has been banned from NBC/MSNBC by Russert, so maybe Russert will decide to go after her candidate. Who knows?

I recall being stunned when Obama was on Meet The Press around the time of South Carolina. Russert waved the famous "race baiting" memo at him and asked him about it. Obama looked stunned and stammered that "we can't always control our surrogates." The follow-up by Russert? [crickets]

I couldn't believe it. Surrogates? This memo was from his damn CAMPAIGN in South Carolina!

Clinton on Nightline, and both segments on O'Reilly, and Obama on Letterman.

I'm biased - to me Obama passed his peak somewhere back around Ohio/Texas - but I see Hillary as increasingly hitting her stride, and a step or two beyond 'warming up'.

Its great to see her getting some coverage, and positive serious coverage at that. For a long time there, she couldn't seem to get any coverage at all.

I thought she handled the superdelegate defection issue on Nightline with brilliance and poise. She politely disagrees with a drawn out primary being bad for the Party, because of the huge excitement generated in all the states so far, the new voter registrations etc - and especially in the remaining states, and anybody who thinks its bad for the Party "is not paying attention" to the people.

I really like the way she ALWAYS pushes the Dem Party brand at every opportunity (and in spite of the fact that the Party is hardly giving her the time of day).

I actually didn't see it. But I'm getting a little embarrassed at the tone of some of the anti-Barack comments here lately. So he did Letterman? So what? As has been pointed out, both candidates have done all kinds of shows. Obama's been under fire lately, and he's not looking good. I see nothing wrong with his campaign booking him on a late night show to deliver a (hopefully) funny bit. I don't think any candidate has ever been hurt by being intentionally funny on TV.

As for reminding people about his bowling score, Hillary made a sniper fire joke on Leno.

I'm totally in Hillary's corner, but some of the ridiculous piling on I see about Obama here is starting to get as bit Kos-like. It doesn't have the same evil tone, but it's a lot of the same kind of silly nitpicking. Just my two cents.

but I think it has a little to do with his claiming not to have the "time" to do a debate, but yet he can find time to do entertainment shows -- it just looks like he is resting on personality & avoiding the "hard" stuff -- you know, the stuff that shows he can handle the "hardest job in the world."

anyone is suggesting he shouldn't have gone on Letterman to do the top ten, at least I'm not. And I thought he did okay.

The MSM questioned the wisdom of the bowling comment. A few articles I read said he seemed tired and not funny, which is why I decided to see what our readers thought.

There are a lot of Hillary supporters among the commenters here. There are few enough sites where they can express themselves without being criticized. There's no reason for you to come here to assail their "tone." By comparison to the commenters at sites favoring Obama, they are very civilized.

I didn't mean to assail anyone. Believe me, I appreciate as much as anyone having a place where I can express my support for Hillary, and where people are respectful. I guess the comparison to Kos was over the top. I'm just seeing a bit of high schoolishness in the comments recently. It's not a big deal, I just felt like people used to be a little less trivial in their criticisms of Obama. I'll stop now.

Can I just say that for my part, most of the criticism was aimed at the writers and the judgement behind the choice of jokes, not at Obama personally. I haven't really seen anyone here suggesting that Obama shouldn't go on a late night show to try to be funny. On the contrary, as the potential future nominee of our party I would love it if he would have a great sense of humor. I want us to have the best possible chance of winning in November and whether some like it or not, even little details like what does or does not happen on these tv appearances can sway the electorate in the long run.

it's that he doesn't really do much else. He won't discuss policy, plans, or take hard questions from reporters or voters. Hillary does these shows between interviews that discuss policy in detail, she talks to the voters about what she is planning to do for them, she is connected and specific. And she is funny. She uses these shows to show she has a sense of humor because when discussing the economy, the war, or job loss it is not appropriate to make jokes. If Obama did the same sort of discussions, he wouldn't get heat for this sort of show. But he doesn't, so he does.

because sometimes Obama comes across as too serious or intellectual for his own good. He needs to relax a bit and look like he is enjoying himself. The top ten list were actually kind of quite funny but the delivery unfortunately was not as.

...while he refuses to debate, talking about 21 debates but only 3 or so in which he had to face her and it's clear her energy and mind for detail is way up there while his is flagging -- and yet, everyone he gets over to his side, first thing, tries to get Hillary to quit.

I find that abominable. The Andrew guy today attacked her for all the things he was sure she'd do or say to him over his decision, while he talked about 'new politics' and practiced 'old politics' more intensely than I've seen in a couple of weeks.

Obama encourages this - that his opponents should drop out (that's his history and he's comfortable only with that while playing Mr. Nice Guy). It's very wearing.

and it's not just anti-Obama comments. This intra-Democrat primary fight has turned into something truly sad.

All the blogs I used to love reading now have sniping posts about one candidate or the other, and attacks and insults on campaigns/campaign supporters in the comments. When the "wrong" Democratic candidate gets attacked in the press, or bad poll numbers, it's celebrated.

There's no netroots community anymore, just different groups of blogs for Clinton, or for Obama. People comment that they could "never vote" for one of the two Democratic candidate for President, as if that is a source of pride.

can be squarely laid on the DNC establishment and the liberal bloggers like kos & huffPo.

The DNC establishment Brazille and co should never have taken sides and should have been objective. Instead Brazille threw the first partisan stone by accusing Bill Clinton of racisim on the fairy tale remark without even understanding its context.
The above mentioned blogger sites with their hyper partisan support of Obama and purging of all Hillary supporters and commenters and by allowing all kinds of nutcase anti Hillary postings literally made Hillary supporters seek alternative shelter. That is why in most pro Hillary blogs the commenters may be anti Obama. And it is too late in the day to be rueing the same. What is done is done.

Speaking for myself unless the DNC establishment makes ammends by counting Fl & MI and the above mentioned blogger sites apologize for their anti liberal behaviour I don't see how the rift can be healed.

I also think it was a mistake for the blogs to take sides, especially in such a nasty way.

We (the blogosphere) could be helping with voter registration, making ads against McCain, phonebanking, fundraising. Instead, the focus is on tearing down another Democrat because they had the temerity to want to be President.

But what can we (the community) do to fix this? I proposed a short break from primary discussion on a few blogs, in order to focus on something else. As you can imagine, that has not happened.

The list wasn't funny or clever, but I thought his delivery was ok, he smiled and didn't seem tired.

I was surprised Letterman addressed him as "Barack" instead of "Sen. Obama." Isn't that a little familial for someone who might be President? When I saw Hillary on the Tonight Show, Leno called her "Sen. Clinton." I'm not a Letterman watcher so maybe it's his usual practice, it just struck me as out of place.

I think it's usually Senator, but he's very chummy with her on the show. And she's cool with pantsuit jokes ;) I thought her 2/4 interview was very nice. It's youtubed if you haven't seen it. I think it was 2 perhaps 3 parts.

I've been reading (well, skimming) a history of women presidential candidates, and it's interesting to see the emphasis on titles and/or jobs in different periods. Early on in 1872 the candidate's job was heavily emphasized (mainly because she was a first--i believe a major lawyer and/or first female wall street broker). Anyways, skip to middish-last century and there was a woman that had 20+ years in the house and senate and had her title dropped all the time--i think she even had a in-the-kitchen photo in one of the major papers.

Anyway, in this case I wonder if Sen. Obama prefers barack as it de-emphasizes his washington identity. Or not, cause without it he risks reminding folks of his lack of resume.

elsewhere from links there, googling names, etc. -- that took me to a good diary on it on DKos, actually. It's an important story, and not just for those of us involved in the labor movement.

Coming up in the next couple of days, btw, are annual commemorations of the martyrs in 1886 to the 8-hour day movement: May 4, Haymarket Square in Chicago; May 5, Rolling Mills site in Bay View in Milwaukee.

I am part of the only group of workers in my state who are denied collective bargaining rights -- by state law. At least the California nurses have that, so then they have to face physical intimidation. (We just get other sorts of intimidation.)

"I mean Hillary is definitely the superior candidate by far and yet the MSM, the Elite democrates and the O blogger set keep pushing a completely different story."

Hillary Clinton is a good candidate but superior?

Obama built his national campaign from scratch, raised more money, mostly from small contributions, got the majority of votes and pledged delegates, and won the support of the majority of elected superdelegates (Clinton does lead in party apparatchiks). And before anyone starts repeating the line on Clinton leading in popular vote when Michigan and Florida are counted, please consider what she said when she needed to win New Hampshire:

NHPR's Laura Knoy: "So, if you value the DNC calendar, why not just pull out of Michigan? Why not just say, Hey Michigan, I'm off the ballot?"

Hillary Clinton: "Well, you know, It's clear, this election they're having is not going to count for anything"

I think Hillary would be winning right now if not for things like that. It looked like an attempt to cheat then, and it turned into a clear intent to cheat now. This has diminished her in the eyes of many, myself included. I used to respect Hillary Clinton quite a bit, and I still do, but not nearly enough to call her "superior" to Obama.

I think Obama cheated Michigan by taking his name OFF the ballot. Nobody said you had to take your name off the ballot, but he did and the result was to punnish VOTERS, not officials, VOTERS.

And BTW, I agree Axelrod is excellent at running a campaign. You think Obama is responsible for the ground game? But Obama isn't the better CANDIDATE, isn't better at talking about policy, throws Democratic ideals under the bus. (e.g. Obama tauted REAGAN environmental policy on Fox News. What a laugher!)

Hillary, while not having as great a campaign, has a much better focus on Democratic issues, something the Obama supporters don't seem to care about anymore.

but I believe the whole ballot issue was a machination of the Obama campaign, because the internals were not favorable to Obama. Clinton chose to leave her name on the ballot.

And why, if the votes were never intended to count, why did Obama surrogates like John Conyers and his wife make TV spots asking voters to vote "undecided" as a vote for Obama? At least Clinton didn't play cute with the voters.

Donna Brazille asked for the heads of MI and FL voters when she pushed for the most severe sanctions on those two states, while SC, which also pushed "The Roolz", got off scot-free. Hmm-mm.

there in is the problem for Nov the belief that no matter whom they run if it's good for the Party the country will waddle behind them because they hate George Bush. Stewart questioned why the country should trust Democrats now to govern after so messing up the Primary.

Also the former DNC guy from Ind looked like a J. Wright out for 15 minutes making the cable rounds he was using Bayh's name I believe Bayh needs to respond and Obama talking points and of course blaming Hillary the Btch ya know attacking her on CNN poor little victim he didn't want to be another Richardson, Terry pushed back on the personal attacks he was spewing. Oh yeah don't recall the exact quote but something like you rubes don't get it this is politics not a tea party ....

that Hillary is so watchable on these shows, the reason she gets great ratings is that you can stand to watch her. You can stand it because you know she isn't going to say anything that makes you seriously cringe, hide your eyes. You watch because you're interested in the notion that she could possible smack that interviewer down and you want to be there when it happens.

Nightline, no big deal, but imagine candidate John Kerry doing direct blows with Bill O'Reilly. Not that O'Reilly is some great interviewer, but you have to be pretty on top of things to not let him mow you over with his BS.